Ice river trees and tomb stones

After yesterday's commotion downtown I felt more like some peace and quiet and a few nice trees to paint. Taking the bus, then walking, I arrived atop Mount Royal. In 2021 I wrote a funny blog about my Climb up mount Royal. No drama today... the first painting shows an idyllic scene of trees on a rolling landscape, with just slight hints of melting snow. 
 

Pleasant tree line, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

 

Truth is, the heaps of snow were melting fast, which created an ice river down the walking path, with the refurbished chalet in the background. Tall metal poles marked the path, a lot of people were trying to tip toe around slush and water. 

Ice river, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Had I brought galoshes it may have been possible to venture further into the park. With just my leather winter boots I had to stay on relatively dry ground, like the path around Beaver Lake. You can see how the ice is thawing, which created a variety of colours, textures and reflections. 

Melting Beaver Lake, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

On the way down the hill I saw a brilliant blue horizon with tomb stones in the middle ground, and trees overlapping. It was kind of a fun painting to do, a fierce wind was blasting me, but with higher temperatures it was no more than an annoyance. Cars zipped down Chemine Remembrance, that is the name of the road on the west side, on the east side its called Voie Camillien-Houde which will stay open for the foreseeable future. There were plans to turn that road into a bike/pedestrian pathway, but cars are more important. 

Blue horizon tomb stones, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Flag waving downtown Montreal

Doing a bit of shopping downtown and then I got a bit caught out in front of Alexis Nihon mall on st Catherine street. A large protest was walking west, shouting 'Hands off Iran' with a large police escort all around. These protestors were waving Palestinian, Lebanese, and both kinds of Iranian flags including the official one, and the alternative one with a lion at its center. Politically, these people were against the war and were pro-Iranian regime for various reasons. In the painting, they are on the right of the scene. Following them, were a group of pro-war people who are against the Iranian regime, waving American, Israeli, Canadian, and Iranian flags with the Lion in the middle. They are on the left of the scene. Each group were carrying placards showing different political figures dead and alive, I wont get into the details. A large group of bicycle police wearing neon vests stood and separated the two groups until the latter group dissipated. I just wanted to get the heck out of there since I understood the dynamic, but was kind of stuck on the sidewalk, also it was starting to rain. About 10 minutes later, everyone was gone and things went back to normal, so I made this painting on the spot, from memory.  

Protest counter protest, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Earlier I heard a celebration going on, music was playing and people were waving flags. These people were celebrating the war in Iran because they don't like their government. I don't know how I feel about it, generally I prefer peace and peaceful solutions, violence rarely results in anything but more violence. You should have seen all the tourists and weekend shoppers... st Catherine was mostly blocked by the protest, and people were shouting in various languages and waving all sorts of flags. So visitors were trying to walk down streets and alleys so as to avoid the to-do. 

Celbration glass skyscrapers, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Finally, just a painting of a tree with Christmas lights still on it, looking up. I embellished the angles and colours of the background buildings for effect. The sounds of sirens and people chanting could be heard in the distance. 

Tree looking up, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Tent encampment, highway overpass

With our reading week drawing to a close, that's when the University gets to read for a week, I made a couple of paintings on my way back from the bike shop. Unfortunately the bike needs work and I might be on foot for the next few days or longer depending on the availability of parts. In st Henri, there was a large tent encampment near the train tracks, now just a few tents remain due to the cold, and other problems they had here like a fire, and an unfortunate death last year. A train of crude oil cars rumbled by as I painted. Its a wonder that the city still permits housing construction near train tracks, let alone a tent encampment. But whenever they shut an encampment down, the people have to move somewhere else. 

Encampment train tracks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

This highway overpass was built as part of the Turcot interchange project, it is highway 136 going downtown (to the right in the painting). In the 1950's before there were any highways, this land used to be a small village of maybe a hundred people with a church, a park, some shops and houses. The village was completely wiped to make way for the highways, although now the area is quite built up with large condos and box stores. Go back far enough and this was indigenous land, although likely part of Otter Lake (little lake Pierre) which was drained by the Lachine canal. Quite a bit of history for a boring looking highway overpass!

Overpass snow banks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

Sundown, sumac trees

Over in Mile End st Urbain street was renovated a few years ago with this fancy seating area and landscaping which is under the snow right now. Behind the benches, is the beginning of the Rosemont overpass that is slated for demolition in the near future. I captured the setting sun with concentric rings of yellow, orange, magenta, and a purplish blue green. It was overcast with a warm glow, despite the bitter cold and severe wind chill.  

Sundown over benches, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

To accomplish these paintings on location, I had to paint the background and fill in the colour blocks, then let it dry enough to finish with details. So I started the first painting, then worked on this one, went back to the first painting, then went back to this one. Luckily it all dried just enough to over-paint the dark details like tree branches, window frames, the legs on the benches etc. With powerful, cold wind it was a good thing my bike didn't blow over. Unfortunately, shortly after getting home, my bike broke in several places and will need major repairs hopefully on Saturday... these bikes are obviously not made for the Canadian winter, but at least I am.  

Sumac middle ground, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

 

Above zero ride downtown

While the sun was shining and the temperature was above 0℃ I found this scene on Maisonneuve showing the cars, bike path, pedestrians and a neat reflection on the glass building in the background. I depicted myself on the bike, complete with fluorescent neon bib and mountain bike. Since I wear a neon bib and helmet, a lot of people think I am either a cop, or I work 'there'. For example at the skating rink downtown I had three people ask when the rink would open, and down at old port the other day two people asked if I worked there because they have a question. Sometimes if I know the answer I answer their question, in French even.  

Maisonneuve reflections, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

A bit further and one reaches the Place des Arts complex where they hold Jazz Festival each summer. This prominent tree, in the middle of one of the fields of grass where they set up music stages, had a greenish tint that I made with yellow (PY154), green umber (PBr7), and a dab of green (PG36). The darker parts contained raw umber (also PBr7). There are like 50 shades of PBr7, all variations on brown ranging from greenish brown, to dark brown, and reddish browns. 

Greenish tree Place des Arts, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026 

I did a painting of Wing's noodles last year, not really appreciating its significance until after the fact. It was a famous Chinese Noodle shop for a long time before falling into debt and disrepair. Slated for redevelopment, there is an effort to preserve the structure as a tourist spot, but the future of this building is uncertain. 

Wing's sign backlit, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026  

Full moon and other night lights

Riding down Boulevard Decarie, there was a clear view of the full moon hanging high in the sky. On the sidewalk in front of a car dealership, a number of bright lights made for an interesting composition. At first glance you see a bunch of light sources each with a different shape and colour, then realize one of them is hanging in the sky! In the background is a view of Montreal, probably parts of Verdun on the horizon. As usual the paint froze on the paper leaving a distinct granular effect. 

Where's the moon? watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026

Speaking of bright lights, this scene, looking due south east, reminded me of that children's play-set called light bright. It is a black surface with peg holes, in which you insert coloured plastic pegs that light up when you turn on the light bulb. With all the traffic lights, car lights, house and street lights, it made for quite an effect. The rainbow looking thing is the Champlain bridge, the incoming traffic had white/yellow lights, and the outgoing traffic had red tail lights, while the bridge itself was illuminated in blue-green. I did a close up of the bridge at night last year, Night Sky Autoroute 15.  This is the kind of painting where you get into it, then wonder what you got into, there were tons of little details to fill in, all while standing next to my bike in frigid weather with cars and occasional people passing by. I hung in there, then had time to add the tree to the first painting, which took a long time to dry. Hopefully the winter painting is over soon, I am looking forward to some warm weather painting again.

Light bright, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026  

Heaps of snow parking lot

Down at the Provigo parking lot, also the Pharmaprix parking lot, there are enormous heaps of snow, several meters high. Filled with grit and sand, the snow is white, blue and dark brown with flecks of black and yellow. In the background you see part of the tall condo on the corner of Sherbrooke and Cavendish, and some of the housing along Sherbrooke. I cleaned the wooden racks and elastics with soap and water to prevent unsightly runoff into the edges of my paintings, which helped things stay cleaner here. It was frigid weather despite a nice blue sky. 

Heaps of snow parking lot, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, March 2026